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Police raid newspaper's office
MISA-Zimbabwe
October 05, 2006

Four detectives from the police’s Law and Order section this week reportedly visited the Harare distribution offices of The Zimbabwean, a weekly published in London and demanded certain information from the proprietor before confiscating some documents.

They were particularly interested in last week's issue, although they did not specify which article had attracted their attention. Last week's front page story, headlined "ZNA top brass slam corrupt ZRP" outlined the tensions between the army and the police after the arrest of a former colonel for alleged corruption at the state grain monopoly, the Grain Marketing Board.

The detectives took away documents pertaining to the importation of the weekly newspaper from South Africa, where the southern African edition is printed. "We will not be intimidated by any bully-boy tactics on the part of the police or anybody else," said UK-based publisher Wilf Mbanga.

"Our mandate is to be a beacon for freedom of expression and of the press in Zimbabwe and we intent to continue doing that, no matter what."

Background
The Zimbabwean is one of the few alternative media voices in Zimbabwe following the closure of the Daily News and Daily News on Sunday, The Tribune and Weekly Times. The newspaper is run by exiled journalist Wilf Mbanga, the founding chief executive officer of the banned Daily News. 

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